US withdraws “final” troops from Iraq
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11107739
The US is withdrawing the last of its troops from Iraq, the final phase in the eight-year operation which has cost billions of dollars and many thousands of lives.
The onus of ensuring Iraq’s security and rebuilding the devastated country now rests with Iraqi leaders.
Almost every figure related to the war is disputed, with none more keenly debated than the total number of Iraqi deaths. This is a summary of some of the key numbers and the arguments surrounding them.
US troops led the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, in coalition with the UK and other nations.
The numbers of US “boots on the ground” have mostly fluctuated between 100-150,000 apart from the period of the “surge” in 2007.
This was President George W Bush’s drive to improve security in the country, especially in the capital Baghdad, by sending in 30,000 extra troops.
Barack Obama made withdrawal from Iraq a key pledge in his presidential election campaign of 2008 and troop numbers have steadily fallen since he took office in January 2009.
On 19 August 2010, the last US combat brigade left the country, leaving behind 50,000 military personnel involved in the transition process.
British forces peaked at 46,000 during the invasion phase and then fell away year on year to 4,100 in May 2009 when the UK formally withdrew from Iraq.
The Royal Navy continued to train the Iraqi Navy until May 2011. The UK’s presence in Iraq is now only as part of the Nato Training Mission – Iraq. That includes 44 military personnel, including a contingent at the Iraqi Military Academy.
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obama tries to make it seem like every last soldier is out of iraq..they arent..do you really think they would just leave and have nobody left behind to watch over the new “assets”? or spooks on the ground..
401
George W,..; “Mission Accomplished,” always was quick on the trigger for lies, deception and falsehoods. It was in his character and Chaney didn’t help the issue much. He is a real jumping the gun guy, but he is a Texan, I’ll give him that. Sort of out of the same mold as the illustrious Rick Perry.
Bush and Cheney should be hung as war criminals and destroyers of the U.S. Economy, if not maybe the world’s.
if they went to the wrong country that could happen..
academi to the rescue…just another taxpayer funded cluster fuck…someone has to stay at the multi-billion dollar compound funded by fucking debt. irony is that the mercs will be paid 10 times what the used US soldier was paid…he will return home to be shit on once the fanfare has subsided…God do I hate our fucking govt.
they will be paid much better..thats a given..
Well, to my mind, thies to is not really a pull out from Iraq rather than just another relocation of troops in order to smash Syria and to open the gates to Iran. Anyhow it is a very sad moment and quite a shame for humanity to have the US shed blodd whereever they go…
Pardon my typos – just had my morning coffee
I have the benefit of “edit” for my own mistakes.
It’s symbolic and frees them up for..
More than 1,000,000 (one million) Iraqis, not the 100,000 or so the US gov tells us, were killed as the result of the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of the country since 2003, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored. That is like 4 or 5 bosnian wars…. horrific.